Sup guys, just bought this game 4 days ago, and gotta say I’m loving it. Unlocked a buncha chars so far (I think the only one I haven’t unlocked yet is Game & Watch) and me and my 2 roommates are pretty much playing this every waking moment that we’re not working. We wore out SSMelee like this as well, we’re a household of smash fans lol.
That said, one of my fave chars in SSM was Link, and I gotta say, I feel like he’s a much weaker char in Brawl than he was in Melee. His main nerf imo is his standing UpB being a charged move. It went from being his best, quickest smash move to an auxillary move used mainly for defense. The hurricane effect on his boomerang is nice, and you can still bombard people with boomerang/bomb/arrow setups but I feel like both his up spike and his down air spike has been nerfed as well, both in terms of damage, knockback and priority.
now keep in mind I’ve only been playing the game for 4 days so maybe I’m not seeing him from all angles yet, so far I’ve just been trying to play him like I used to own with him in SSM. So if he’s actually not nerfed, could you guys explain to me why/how?
So far it seems like both Link’s and Samus’ ranged grabs got nerfed in terms of length and recovery time, but I might be mistaken.
By buffs in mobility are you strictly referring to his run speed?
Also, I kinda wish they made it so you could choose which boomerang comes out, the regular one or the hurricane one, kinda like Samus’ missiles. Sometimes I don’t WANT to bring people closer to me…
And is it just my imagination or is Link’s ultimate smash by far the easiest to avoid?
And uncharged spin attack will still K.O., just not as well as the spin attack from melee. Bombs got buffed, arrows got buffed (more distance without charging).
He also seems floatier due to me having a much easier time with his recovery than I ever did in melee.
Boomerang no longer hits on return. instead it pulls in the enemy in which has made for some hilarious moments that had me catching my opponent off guard. Honestly, it’s just a gimmick imo. I guess one could argue that the arrows being better makes up for it, but seriously, Link just needed to be better across the slate. I don’t see why such a random balance choice was made.
f+air was made faster IIRC.
His tweaks are very minor.(I.E., he most likely will end up still being no higher than mid-tier in the long run seeing as always sucked in the past. but eh, time will tell.)
So is he nerfed? Well, he was made wrose in some areas but better in others. Wouldn’t call him buffed or nerfed.
Speaking of off guard whirlwind foolishness, I’ve actually managed to fuck up peeps recovery by letting it pass by jumping over it or fast fall grabbing the ledge.
Link, imo seems faster in terms of attack speed.(overall) His bombs are more dangerous to fuck with now, I still live by them when I do play Link. I played Link in Melee (the suicide Link, LOL the strat envolved self bombing) That Hookshot hits twice now and does 10% instead of the last game’s 6%…Random info I throw out there.
What that basically means is that Young Link (or toon link if you will) is possibly the most buffed character in the game. He is in almost every possible way better than his melee counter part. Regular link on the other hand is not.
BUT THIS IS NOT ABOUT TOON LINK.
Moves you want to use with link:
n+air for anti-rush craziness.
F+air for edgegaurding.
up-tilt for interruptions and to gain space.
f-tilt is just damn good imo.
Also, if you’re going to throw with him, use up throw outside of edgegaurd setups. Link can no longer kill from his d-throw…honestly, his down throw is ass now.
Yeah I was gonna bring that up to, I really miss his d-throw and I really wonder why it had to be nerfed so badly. Link was NOT an overpowered or imbalanced character by ANY means in SSM, so why so many nerfs on his best moves in SSB?
I just don’t get it. And buffing Toon Link so much while nerfing regular Link just doesn’t make any sense…
Like I said, they nerfed him is some areas and buffed him in others. They defiantly didn’t pull a samus (who just got fucking WORSE all around) on him. He has some tweaks that make him better in significant areas. I just don’t think I would call him either buffed or nerfed because of that. He’s link. I think if you liked him before you’ll like him now.
EDIT: have to add this: surakai doesn’t seem to know shit about his own damn games. the balance tweaks made in brawl are just random as fuck.
“Man, Mario is too good! he should be less cheap this time!”
Mario is absolute shit in this game… I’m sorry Mario fans, but it’s true.
I honestly believe Link’s nerfs far outweigh his buffs.
He lost a lot of priority and smash potential in both his up air and his down spike
His standing up+B has been nerfed to near uselessness without a charge when it originally was a very reliable and fast smash + counter move
His boomerang has an added hurricane effect, but only hitting on the out throw takes away even more versatility.
his Dthrow has been considerably nerfed.
Why o why did they add so much recovery time to his hook throw? Not only that, they nerfed the range of the hook… Throwing out of guard isn’t even as useful as it used to be considering the many other things you can do out of guard now, why nerf Link’s?
Improvements to his bomb and movement speed (I don’t actually think he’s much faster in Brawl than Melee, but maybe that’s just me, and the improved blast radius + damage to his bombs really don’t help a WHOLE lot) are all good and everything, but Link got shafted IMO. He went from a upper-mid to lower-top tier char to a char who gets outshined by his clone (Toon Link) in ever possible way. Link as he stands now is firmly in the bottom of the mid-tiers.
Everyone jumped on the Link got nerfed bandwagon originally, but I think he’s pretty good. He’s slow, yeah, but he has some great range and priority with moves like Zair, Utilt, Ftilt, Fair.
Arrows are definitely more usable with the extra horizontal distance.
Boomerang I’m not sure on. Sometimes it helps when they get pulled back into your Fsmash or something, but sometimes you aren’t quick enough and DK gets pulled into you while he’sdoing a fully charged punch.
Haven’t played a whole lot with him, but he seems alright.
link is born to be low tier, sorry. Also comparing any character to their melee counterpart is pretty pointless since nearly all returning characters got nerfed if you look at it like that. He’s probably a little better in Brawl than he was relatively to the other characters in melee. Brawl is more defensive and he has his hook shot, nair and projectiles which give him some good defensive options. Also since there is less combos in Brawl, Link isn’t as big a punching bag as he was in melee.
EDIT: also keep in mind that brawl is defensive. In melee I loved to play what is considered a tank Link that however, is an impossibility if you want to win any matches in Brawl.
Yeah, Link has gotten nerfs and buffs, so he isn’t really better or worse, but that isn’t saying much since he’s been low tier in 64 and Melee. I think he’s still gonna end up being low tier in Brawl just because a lot of other characters are simply better.
I do agree with you that Link did go through some serious nerfs. However, I do not fully agree with your thoughts concerning the changes to his boomerang. I say “not fully” because removing the hit from the out throw did remove some options for Link. Even though these options were removed, I believe that he is more versatile with the hurricane effect.
Let’s say that I am involved in a battle against a player that is using Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong has already fully charged his punch, and is just waiting for the perfect opportunity to bash my Link’s face. So my thought is to bait him into missing that punch, and pounce on him before he fully recovers from his attack. Right now, Donkey Kong is at the max range of Link’s boomerang. Both he and I want to close that distance gap. So Donkey Kong jumps forwards in the air, hoping that I rush in and try to attack him. Of course, he is going to air dodge and look to grab me. I know this, so instead of rushing in, I throw the boomerang. My intent is not to hit. My intent instead is to make it appear that I was going to hit Donkey Kong, and for the hurricane effect to reel him in. Thinking that I mistimed my attack with the boomerang, Donkey Kong believes that I gave him an opportunity to use the charged punch. This is what I want him to think. Donkey Kong then unleashes his punch, only to connect with air because I side-stepped his attack. Now I have the opportunity to attack Donkey Kong before he finishes recovering from his attack.
This example is strictly theory fighting. I have not had the pleasure of fighting against Donkey Kong much because no one really uses him at the college I am attending, or in online matches because I have not been able to connect my Wii to the Internet in my dorm room. However, I do believe that a situation such as the one above is plausible, and if it is, it goes to show that Link may even be more versatile with his changed boomerang than most people think.
From what I can tell, there really is no strategy to work the whirlwind thing well. If it hits, change plans if they come near. Otherwise, continue spamming. It’s a little too situational to rely on for its whirlwind.
I don’t think it’s mentioned before or even worth noting, but throwing the boomerang at it’s max length, short or long, will not hurt the opponent but wil just push them off for no damage.
As I read your post, and thought about it more, it does seem that the whirlwind is very situational. Going back to the example, the whirlwind only worked for two reasons. One is that Donkey Kong jumped, and two, he let himself be carried by the whirlwind. I do believe someone can dodge the whirlwind effect, but I need to play against Link some more to know for sure.
So, I retract my statement from not fully agreeing in my last post. From what was stated by Xahki, and from more thought about the situation, I now have to say that I do fully agree with Galactic about the whirlwind, and how Link has lost some versatility do to it.